A Thousand Children
by MartyMcFlyJr
Summary: I was just thinking about Morraine and decided to write... Should I make it a story? I'll think about it...
1. Chapter 1

An ogre was ripping him apart.

Morraine could do nothing but watch and wait for her own turn. After the boy is dead, the ogre will turn to her. She had no where to go. If she ran back, there were three more ogres in the process of destroying more of her friends. She was in the middle of a horror that she couldn't escape. She could almost feel the sharp claws on her skin, cutting deep into her organs. She sat on the ground and hoped the ogres will not notice her.

Suddenly, the ogre disappeared. She looked back. She saw her friends on the ground, but no ogres. She hurried to them. They were bleeding and dying. She tried to bandage them up. She didn't know who to help first. They were all so torn apart. She stopped by her closest friend and neighbor who was so badly hurt that she was at death's door. Morraine did what she could to make her friend comfortable.

"Tell my parents I tried," her friend said, tears falling on her face and getting soaked into the ground along with her blood.

"I will…" Morraine said sobbing silently and holding her dying friend by the hand.

"Tell them," her friend breathed heavily, "tell them I love them"

"Tell 'em yourself" a loud giggly voice said from behind Morraine.

Morraine turned to see a lizard-like monstrous creature laughing at her.

"Can't you see she is dying?" Morraine whispered angrily, trying to shoo that imp away.

"Not anymore," he giggled and disappeared.

She looked back at her friend. She was still bloody, but she looked completely whole, and alive.

"Wha-" Morraine started in amazement.

"That thing healed me." Her friend said. "He waved his hand and some purple smoke appeared and… I don't know, I just felt better."

Morraine, tears still running down her cheeks, just stared at her friend and started laughing with relief.

They felt like they were waking up from a terrible nightmare just to see that everything was OK.

"Something happened to his skin when he healed me," her friend told her. "He became more lizard-like."

They looked around and saw that there were no ogres, and that all the children who were dying were now walking around looking for each other.

The children huddled together in random spots, some of them calling to the benevolent creature to heal their friends.

Morraine saw the imp again a half hour later. He came back because a boy was crying for help.

The boy pointed at his friend on the ground.

"This one is dead," the imp giggled rudely, "I can't fix him," he announced gleefully, "that's why I didn't," he giggled again.

Morraine approached the strange-looking man and looked closely at his face.

She suddenly felt faint and stumbled backwards when she thought she recognized the imp.

It was none other than her other neighbor Rumplestiltskin! He was Baelfire's father! She remembered that today was Baelfire's birthday. She completely forgot about it during the war.


	2. Chapter 2

Morraine was not sure if she should be happy or worried to see that this peculiar creature was her friend's father.

He looked even more distorted than he did an hour ago. It appeared that every time he healed someone his look became more and more grotesque.

"C-can you take us home?" Morraine asked timidly.

"Oh, that's right!" Rumplestiltskin said. He opened his eyes, like a lightbulb turned on in his brain. He giggled again, and twirled his wrists glamorously.

"You can't just be left here. How would you know the way home?" He shrieked gleefully. "Gather around, boys and girls of the frontlands!" He waved his hands gesturing grandly. "We're going home!"

The children drifted towards the monster like moths drawn to light. He divided them into groups according to which town they lived in.

And he led them home.

All one thousand children.

The boy whose friend was dead, wanted to take his body with them, but the Dark One refused. He sing-songed that a dead weight will just slow them down.

When they arrived at that boy's town, Rumplestiltskin urged him to go home to his parents, but the boy lingered in front of his dead friend's hut.

"You don't have to be the one to tell his parents, and family, " the imp wagged his finger in the boy's face dramatically.

"Only his father," the boy said sadly. It's the only family he's got."

Rumplestiltskin looked like he'd swallowed a frog, whole, but he recovered two seconds later and his impish giggle returned.

"Well, run along now," he announced with flourish, "I have fifty-seven more towns to go to. Tick tock!"

Morraine's town was last. She went into her warm home, and reunited with her parents. They were so happy to see her. They kissed and hugged their daughter, and urged her to eat and drink and rest.

When she went into her room to sleep, she decided to look out of her window at the hovel next door.

She saw her next door neighbor, Rumplestiltskin, walk out of his home. She looked after him curiously. Where could he be going? She hasn't seen her friend, Baelfire since she was drafted, so she decided to sneak out of her house and visit him.

"Happy birthday," she said when Baelfire opened the door for her.

"Hi, Morraine," Baelfire answered a bit gloomily.

Morraine felt so sorry for her friend. She had witnessed his papa's gradual transformation first-hand. She could only imagine the horror Baelfire must feel at seeing his only family, his warm and loving papa, suddenly look like a monster.

"Where did your papa go?" She asked.

"Said he needed to do something." Baelfire said unenthusiasticly.

Morraine decided to follow Baelfire's papa.

He was not limping anymore, but he walked slowly, thoughtfully. She followed him all the way to the battlefield.

He bent over that dead child. She thought she heard sniffing – could it be? Was he crying? He conjured a stretcher and placed the child carefully onto it. He waved his hand over the boy and suddenly the boy looked whole. He was still dead, but his limbs were not ripped apart and the blood was cleaned. The little boy looked like he was peacefully sleeping.

Rumplestiltskin then carried the stretcher all the way to the boy's father's hut. He left the boy outside the door with a letter and a solid gold badge of honor.

He then knocked on the door and poofed away.

Morraine was exhausted and wished she could also poof home to her bed. She knew the way by then, and she walked herself home.


End file.
